Particularly with today’s political climate some people are getting tired of all the rhetoric on Facebook. Some laugh and ignore it others get off of Facebook temporarily while still others deactivate their accounts, get off of the app and never come back…or so they plan.
There are several ways to get off of FB. Yes, the easy way is to stop using it for a while. I have a relative or two who have done this. They just stop using it for a while and wait for the insanity to pass. That way you have the ability to log back into the system and see pictures of old friends and hear what people had for breakfast; whatever.
Another way is to deactivate your account. To do this, open log into your Facebook account. In the upper right corner click the down arrow in and choose “Settings.” On the left of this screen select “Security” then at the bottom of that screen click on “Deactivate Your Account.” Now choose it once again.
Facebook now tells you that your photos will vanish in most areas of Facebook and that people will see some of your posts if others have shared them, etc. They also try to make you sad by showing some of your friends on FB who will miss you.
Next, you will need to answer a few questions, like your reason for leaving. By-the-way, if you want to deactivate for a period of time you can choose that here also. Your account will then become active again at the time you choose. Then there is a little more information and warnings. For instance, do you wish to opt out of receiving invites, notices of being tagged in photos, etcetera? You will also need to decide if you want to also shutdown Messenger. You can still use it if you like the app, which in my opinion is the best part of FB. Then you hit the last Deactivate button and finish it off.
If you choose to deactivate your Facebook account, you can start it back up again later. As long as you keep your email address or phone number you used for the account when you deactivated, you can start back right where you left off.
If you really want to shut down and delete your Facebook forever, proceed. Get ready as this is made harder to do than deactivating. If you want to keep copies of your posts, photos, videos, messages, and chats you have posted to FB download them first. Go to the settings again and at the bottom of the General tab click “Download a copy of your Facebook data.” All of the data will be in your downloads as a zipped file once it completes.
We are going to stop here this week. Next week we will cover a few more actions required to permanently eradicate your Facebook account.
